Accreditation Spotlight

"Accreditation begins to validate that a company, not just an individual, has the capacity to perform arboriculture services as a whole, in a manner that follows all regulatory requirements across the board.”Kevin Caldwell, Caldwell Tree Care (Accredited since 2007).

This month's feature:

A couple of years ago, James Donegan was getting tired of his business. He was doing sales, scheduling, mechanic work and PR with customers and looking after employees.
“I was putting out ﬁres, getting burned out,” says Donegan, founder and owner of Donegan’s Tree Service, Inc., in Leesburg, Virginia. “I even called another company about selling to them.”Read Article / Donegan's Tree Service

Archive:

Innovation and Family Lifting Nick's Tree Service to New Heights (May 2018)

As a journeyman ironworker, Nick Taylor stood on beams atop buildings during construction and directed the crane operator, who was lifting the beams with steel cables. Taylor connected the beams together.Read Article / Nick's Tree Service

T4 Tree Services is Getting the Word Out on Accreditation (April 2018)

Teddy Hildebrandt got his start in tree services working with his father, Ron Hildebrandt, at his father’s company, Shady Tree Service, in Parker, Colorado. “My dad taught me to work hard, and to be honest with myself, and my employees and my customers,” Hildebrandt says. Read Article / T4 Tree Services

Rick Hildebrandt, who worked for a national tree-services company for 37 years, taught his sons tree work, hoping it would encourage them to get oﬃce jobs. It didn’t work. Read Article / Hildebrandt Tree Tech

In the 1970s, Bill Brittain was working for a national tree services company. He left to get his degree in architecture, and in 1998, he combined his expertise in both ﬁelds and founded Arbortecture, Inc., in Myersville, Maryland.Read Article / Arbortecture, Inc.

Walking Softly Goes a Long Way for He-Man Tree Service. (January 2018)

Haleakalā Mountain, a volcano that forms more than 75 percent of the Island of Maui, Hawaii, rises from sea level to more than 10,000 feet.

Starting Off Right Sets the Tone For Cutting Edge Tree Professionals. (December 2017)

In April 2015, ISA-certified arborist Jake Allegar and his friend from high school, Nathaniel Durkin, who has a master’s degree in business, bought the tree services company then owned by Allegar’s employer and mentor, Todd Fuller.Read Article / Cutting Edge Tree Services

Focus on technical work a Weise Choice to grow business. (November 2017)

Before Daniel Weise founded Weise Choice Tree Services in Middlebury, Connecticut, in 2006, he was an award-winning climber who subcontracted for 10 to 14 tree service companies when they needed help with their hardest jobs.Read Article / Weise Choice Tree Services

In 1996, while Richard Lewis III was working for Woodbridge Tree Service in Bethany, Connecticut, the company owned by his father, Richard Lewis Jr., and his father’s partner, Ray Pantalone, he convinced both men to let him add a new division. Read Article / Woodbridge Tree Service

New Urban Forestry has a mission for trees: to plan for the planting of new trees in landscapes, to manage the care of existing ones and to re-move sick and hazardous ones. If it is necessary to remove trees, New Urban strives to keep all wood waste from the landﬁll by re-cycling the material, and also focuses on the future of the landscape.Read Article / New Urban Forestry

Empowerment Drives Success at Jones Road Tree Service (August 2017)

For David Mauk, founder, owner and CEO of Jones Road Tree Service, empowerment is the way to his company’s success.
“You have to empower yourself, your family and your team every day,” says Mauk.

Sam Hill founded his company, Sam Hill Tree Care, in 1998 to specialize in the science behind healthy trees and soils.
“I come from a horticulture and plant-soils background,” says Hill. “When I got into the tree care industry, I chose to focus on that. There’s a big need for it.”

Accreditation is the "Exclamation Point" on Decades of Integrity at John B. Ward & Co (June 2017)

As a young man, Jim Ward worked in the family tree care business with his father’s strong work ethic communicated through everything he did. “He’d say, ‘Always treat clients the way you would want to be treated, in a fair and honest manner,’” says Ward. “Because of that philosophy, we’ve always been known as a company that does things the right way.”Read Article / John B. Ward & Co

Safety and professionalism go hand in hand at ElectriCom. (May 2017)

ElectriCom Right-of-Way Services, LLC, has been safety conscious since it was founded in 2007, says Sam Leinart, president of the company. But about five years ago, top management decided to take an even more serious stand.Read Article / ElectriCom Right-of-Way Services, LLC

Sustainability in All Things at Mike's Tree Service (April 2017)

Mike Barger was almost sidelined early on in his career in tree care. After graduating from Michigan Tech with a degree in forestry, he went to work for a local tree care company, where he had an accident serious enough to make him leave the field for a time. Read Article / Mike's Tree Surgeons

Safety and Accreditation are Parts of the Culture at Lake States Tree Service (March 2017)

In April 2016, Lake States Tree Service became the first right-of-way (ROW) vegetation management contractor in Minnesota to receive TCIA Utility Contractor Accreditation.Read Article / Lake States Tree Service

Harder Services, Inc., a 55-year TCIA member company based in Hempstead, New York, is one of the very few tree service companies that has achieved duel TCIA Accreditation. In 2008, they earned their Residential/Commercial Accreditation. In 2014, they were re-accredited for Residential/Commercial and also received their Utility Contractor Accreditation.Read Article / Harder Services, Inc

In 1985, Phillip Ping incorporated Ping’s Tree Service in Indianapolis. Since then, Ping’s has become the largest locally owned tree service company in a widespread area of Central Indiana, including Marion, Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Morgan, Putnam and Shelby counties.Read Article / Ping's Tree Service

Pree's Tree Specialists is Building a Legacy (Dec 2016)

Ben Hazel, the owner of Pree’s Tree Specialists in Greenback, Tennessee, had been working for Fred Pree as a climber and learning the customer relations and business aspects of tree work for a couple of years when, in 2005, Pree asked him if he’d like to buy the company.Read Article / Pree's Tree Specialists

As a teenager, Mark Cicoria used to help his older brother, Gerard, mow lawns in the summers. When a customer asked them to take down a tree one day, they did it. Read Article / Cicoria Tree and Crane

Starting Right Pays Off for Tree Climbers Tree Services (Oct 2016)

Jeremy Williams was working as a logger in the mid-2000s when he met James Earhart, who later won ISA’s 2015 Masters’ Challenge in its International Tree Climbing Championship (ITCC). Earhart introduced him to the ITCC and its accompanying trade shows, and taught him some of the basics of climbing. Read Article / Tree Climbers Tree Services

John Lucas founded Lucas Tree Expert Co. in 1926 to help the power company complete the electrification of rural Maine, says Gerry Breton, CTSP, the company’s safety director.Read Article / Lucas Tree Expert

Successful Strategies Increase Revenue for Colonial Tree (Aug 2016)

Education and Training Pave the Way for Ahlum & Arbor (July 2016)

David Ahlum and his wife, Lana, founded Arbor Inc., now Ahlum & Arbor Tree Preservation, in Columbus, Ohio, in 1978 while he was studying for his degree in landscape horticulture at The Ohio State University. Read Article / Ahlum & Arbor

Tree Health and Accreditation are Good For Business at M&M Tree Care (June 2016)

In 1968, Bob Miller Sr. left his work as a logger in northern Wisconsin and moved south to Milwaukee, where he founded M&M Tree Care as a tree removal business. The company grew through the years and now offers an extended range of services. Now, instead of taking trees down, the company focuses on keeping them alive and healthy. Read Article / M&M Tree Care

Mix of Trees, Landscaping and Water Help Belknap Grow (May 2016)

In 1988, Hayden McLaughlin acquired Belknap Nursery and converted it to Belknap Landscape Company, a design/build company in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, the heart of the state. Read Article / Belknap Landscape Company

Arborist Now Has a Vision for Trees (March 2016)

Jean-Claude Rochat became an arborist climber and a landscaper apprentice in his native country, Switzerland. Read Article / Arborist Now